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9-10 Kathmandu Sch. L. Rev. 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/kslr10 and id is 1 raw text is: Kathmandu School of Law Review (KSLR), Volume 9, Issue 1, 2021, pp 1-15 https://doi.org/10.46985/kslr.v9i1.2172 © KSLR, 2021 Richhpal Singh Meena v. Ghasi: Past Eclipse of India's Substantive Criminal Law in Contemporary Operation Jaideep Singh La/' Abstract The Indian Supreme Court's verdict in Richhpal Singh Meena v. Ghasi is a marked perzpeteia in the legalposition on the applicability of offences under the two sub-chapters of Chapter XVI of the IPC in the heads of sections dealing with 'Offences Affecting Ufe' and 'Hurt'. In essence, this ruling declared that scenarios that end with death of the bictim will mandatoriy have to be ony covered by the sub-chapter 'Offences Affecting Life making 'actus reus of fatal results' the determinant for choosing the offence for which the accused is to be convicted. After proiding a factual frame of reference, this paper recapitulates the key elements of the Court's reasoning in arriing at this principle. The main thrust of the paper lies in its analysis of the Court's faulty neologisms and legally inconsistent alterations in theyardsticks that govern which cases fall under either of the two heads. This paper argues that the Court's ratio deddendi and the principles it has evolved represent nothing short of insouciance towards decades of clarificatoy precedent and that they are ex fadie since Richhpal's ruling engenders injustice in situations where the intention is to ony cause hurt, but death results regardless of the intention transpired. As a judgment made in 2014, this ruling continues to breed iniquitous convictions even to this day. It is this examination of the judgments myopia for the past and its eckpse on the present dekvey of justice that represents the central thesis of this paper. In 2014, while adjudicating a Criminal Appeal, a division bench comprising of Justices Ranjana P. Desai and Madan B. Lokur of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India upended decades of jurisprudential progress on the distinct application of sections under the two separate heads 'Offences Affecting Life' and 'Hurt' in Chapter XVI of the Indian Penal Code 1860 ('IPC'). The judgment in Richhpal Singh Meena v. Ghasi' effectively * Jaideep Singh Lalli is a final year law student, reading for B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) at the University Institute of Legal Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. He can be reached at jaideepsingh013@gmail.com. He has previously published with the University of Oxford Human Rights Hub Journal, Statute Law Review (Oxford University Press), NALSAR Student Law Review, and more. Richhpal Singh Meena v. Ghasi, Supreme Court of India, 2014, B SCC 918. (Richhpal Singh Meena case) 1

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